10 great cars you always promised yourself – now within reach

All cars, no matter how valuable or desirable when spinning round in a bright showroom like your favourite Ultravox LP, eventually become old cars.

Those very same cars twinkling behind the pane of glass you pressed your face against as a kid become attainable, as long as you’re happy to accept they’ve been owned by someone you probably don’t know, and almost certainly driven in a way you wouldn’t appreciate.

So how great are these bargains? Is a low-priced great car better value than a high-priced (i.e. new) family car? Is it a risk? Could it even be a better way to invest your money than in a nice safe bank account (if that’s even a thing now)?

We won’t go into the investment opportunities as we don’t want you throttling us if it turns out our crystal ball’s due a cambelt change; but we can see a lot of tasty motors available for less (sometimes far less) than the list price of a new basic-spec Ford Focus – so that gave us £18k to play with when we scoured the cars on offer at the ACA’s 27th August classic car auction to grab that car you always promised yourself.

All images via ACA.

All future values suggested are entirely speculative.

Have you spotted a classic car you lusted after when it was new that’s now cheaper than a Ford Focus? Leave a comment below and let us know.